Archaeology Notes
Event ID 647302
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/647302
NB91SE 2 9686 1380
(NB 9686 1380) Cairn, partially excavated by a local. (Also a 20th century burial - sailor, 1914-18.)
OS 6"map, annotated by I Crawford, September 1961.
The cairn stands on a narrow, flat-topped grassy promontory, flanked by deep gulleys; it consists of an irregularly-shaped mound, 1.0m high, of loose water-worn stones with no evidence of a retaining circle or chambering.
A small area in the centre has been cleared to natural ground surface. Around and partially underlying the cairn are overgrown patches of stones, giving a superficial appearance of walling, and to the E are the remains of three small hollowed-out enclosures.
Local enquiry (Mr Maclennan, Blarbuie) ascertained that (1) the cairn was originally excavated about 50 years ago by a local man, no records of finds being made. (2) the visible clearance was made recently by a Mr McGregor of Glasgow University who thought that a fort had originally occupied the site; (3) the small enclosures were built and used for seaweed storage and are of no significance; (4) the "Sailor's Grave" is sited on another spur to the N.
Although the grassed-over rubble gives a superficial appearance of walling, the form is meaningless. This and the fact that nearly all the stones of the cairn are water-worn beach stones, quite unsuitable for building, make it unlikely that this was a fort. A robbed burial cairn is the more likely explanation.
Visited by OS (F R H), 30 May 1962.
The promontory on which this cairn stands is capped by a layer of gravel and small stones up to 8' deep, which is in turn covered by a thin topping of peat. The cairn itself is a mound of bare stones (11.5m NW-SE x 8.0m NE-SW x 0.8m high) and it looks from excavations around it as if the peat at one time covered it, signifying it is of some antiquity. It is partly the edge of these excavations and a few fortuitous stones that OS field Surveyor (F R H) has taken to be pre-cairn walling. Despite the lack of evidence from the excavation, it seems likely that this is a sepulchral cairn placed on what is now the remnants only of a small raised beach, and it is not unlike the cairns on Rhum (See NM39NW 3). There is no indication of a fort here, although the position is a good one for a small defensive structure.
Surveyed at 1:10560 scale.
Visited by OS (A A), 16 July 1974.
